2014

Although the Kolberg Year formally ended a few months ago, our Office continued to work, finalising the project, collecting the information that was still being sent in, and, above all, cherishing the fruits of the Kolberg Year, that is all the recordings, books, magazines, websites, photographs, multimedia, etc. that the project brought about. Here, we would like to thank the contributors from the bottoms of our hearts!

The Traditional Music Laboratory of the Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw was founded on 17 June 2015 during the conference Transgenerational transmission in traditional culture and the role of the state in this area.

Oskar Kolberg died exactly 125 years ago, on 3 June 1890 in Kraków and was laid to rest at the Rakowicki Cemetery. Marking the death of this prominent folklorist and ethnographer, on 1 June 2015, representatives of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Oskar Kolberg Institute, the Oskar Kolberg Museum in Przysucha, and the Institute of Music and Dance, laid flowers and lit candles at his grave, renovated last year.

You may now see photos from a concert held in tribute to Oskar Kolberg on 31 May 2015 at Celestat in Kraków, which mirrored a music event that took place exactly on the same day in exactly the same place in 1889.

We are happy to inform that the Institute of Music and Dance together with the Fryderyk Chopin Institute and the Oskar Kolberg Institute has received a honourable mention in a plebiscite for The Historical Event of 2014 for the organisation of the Kolberg Year celebrations.

Kraków's Celestat (ul. Lubicz 16) will witness an extraordinary event on Sunday, 31 May 2015 as the Institute of Music and Dance and the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków are holding a concert in tribute to Oskar Kolberg mirroring an event that took place exactly on the same day and in the same place in 1889.

In a poll covering a 1000-strong representative sample of the Polish population aged 18 and over carried out in December 2013 by CBOS only 8% of the respondents knew who Oskar Kolberg was. A similar poll carried out in January 2015 showed the percentage to be 11,3.

Marking the Kolberg Year, the website www.muzykatradycyjna.pl was reconstructed, becoming more user-friendly and easier to develop further in the future. The site is a source of updates and a valuable ethnomusicology reference. The most important content has been translated into English.

The website www.instruments.edu.pl presents music instruments and sound-making tools used across Poland. The database features over 200 exhibits that come from Poland's leading collections (Warsaw, Poznań, Szydłowiec, Izabelin), dating from 1705 to 2011.

The Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw is holding the official launch of its new website www.instruments.edu.pl dedicated to Polish folk instruments on 17 March 2015 at midday at the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw.

The Kolberg Year is nearing its finale. We have proved that folk culture is still alive and kicking, can grip people's imagination, and is profoundly authentic. We wish you many reasons for joy in the New Year 2015!

On 11 December 2014 Polish Radio's Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio in Warsaw will host the closing gala of the Kolberg Year. This year has been filled with a vide array of celebrations marking the bicentenary of birth of the great folklorist and ethnographer. Drawing on traditional culture, the initiatives will undoubtedly go on after the Kolberg Year finishes.

To mark the Oskar Kolberg Year, a concert of traditional music was held at Warsaw's Presidential Palace on 5 November 2014. In attendance were president Bronisław Komorowski and his wife Anna Komorowska.

A CD insert in Songlines magazine featuring Polish folk music, Vołosi band's performance, and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute's expo stand – these are the highlights of Poland's participation in the WOMEX world music expo in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

The October issue of Songlines magazine comes with Discover Poland, a special CD insert featuring 18 recordings that present the Polish folk music scene, ranging from Warsaw Village Band to Studium Instrumentów Etnicznych.

A day before the International Music Day and the anniversary of the establishing of the Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw, on 30 September, winners of the 2014 Coryphaeus of Polish Music (Polish: Koryfeusz Muzyki Polskiej) were announced during an awards ceremony at Polish Radio's Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio in Warsaw.

It is already the fourth time round that the Polish music community is going to name individuals, ensembles and institutions that have made the most profound contribution to Poland's music across different genres and periods.